


Every Bolt And Bar Unfast'ns

by atreic



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Neverwhere - All Media Types, Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-21
Updated: 2013-12-21
Packaged: 2018-01-05 10:51:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1093012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atreic/pseuds/atreic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Door and Richard travel to Oxford in their quest to find Door's sister.  </p><p>[This is a Neverwhere / His Dark Materials cross-over.  That probably tells you all you need to know...]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Bolt And Bar Unfast'ns

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amazing_E_ko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amazing_E_ko/gifts).



Will was working alone in the library when the Spectre found him. He was buried in his book and did not see it approaching, but a sudden nausea washed over him, and a fear twisted deep inside him, making him gasp and fall to the floor. Kirjava's howls of misery echoed round the room as the book Will was reading dropped from his hands with a clatter. Will curled up in a tight ball, rocking frantically backwards and forwards, pain and sickness tearing through his veins. In his agony he remembered hazily that if he could just reach his pocket... something in his pocket might make the misery stop. Slowly he reached down, and found the handkerchief he always carried with him, wrapped tight around a razor sliver, a fragment of the subtle knife. He shook it loose, too lost in fear and shock to feel as it sliced into the remaining three fingers of his left hand, and clumsily brandished it upwards.

Suddenly he could breathe again. He saw the Spectre then, drifting away from him, a veil of shimmering gauze falling back into the depths of the Bodleian. Clutching Kirjava to him with his right arm and still flailing with the shard in his left, he stumbled backwards, out of the library, into the light, and towards Mary’s office.

***

Richard gazed in wonder at the sea of activity around him. He would have thought that after the floating market he could not be shocked or surprised by the crowds of London Below, but the view that assailed him was as though someone had taken the market and critically decided the whole thing could be improved by a herd of wild animals and a hefty dollop of lycra. There was the food, the music, the stalls and the street cries, but woven in amongst them were elephants, lions, clowns, trapeze artists, and jugglers. A tightrope strung casually between two patient looking giraffes had a man unicycling across it; a pack of Jack Russells oscillated between forming a pyramid and squabbling over a bone. 

Door and de Carabas came fighting through the chaos towards him. “It’s all sorted” said Door, giving Richard a gentle squeeze on the arm. “The circus leaves at midnight, and they’ll let us travel back up to Oxford with them.” Her face was firm, but her eyes looked tired.

“By the time this escapade is over, you’re going to owe a lot of people a lot of favours, Lady Door” said de Carabas. 

“I’m perfectly aware of that. And if I live long enough to find my sister and start repaying them, I will consider I’m doing very well out of it, on balance”

“Well,” said the Marquis “I fully intend you to pay me back. So you’d better survive. And I guess if I come with you, the odds of _that_ are substantially improved.” He drew his coat around him with a flourish, and the three of them wandered down to the caravans, where a jaunty elephant was already loading up the baggage.

*** 

It was Pantalaimon who spotted the book first. Lyra was deep in the stacks of Bodley’s Library, seeking texts on medieval symbolism, when Pan scampered over to her and tugged on her sleeve.

“Lyra! I’ve found a book!”

Lyra looked up from the pile of folios she was working through. “A book, Pan? In a library? That’s really not that surprising...”

Pan climbed up onto her shoulders, dropped to the floor again, and wound himself round her legs impatiently. Lyra gently put down the text she’d been working on and followed him down the corridor. “Whatever this is Pan, it’d better be good. I think that paragraph I was reading was the best source I’d found for understanding why the dolphin is both the sign for playfulness and salvation. And now you’ve distracted me and I’m not going to...” She turned the corner and trailed off into silence as she spotted the book Pan was leading her to. 

It was a small scruffy paperback, a dark purple colour, with the hero on the front in a dramatic pose, legs apart and brandishing a weapon. It was entirely unlike the other books around it, which were twice the size and bound in leather or cased cloth. And Lyra knew, without the slightest doubt, that the book had come from a different world.

Lyra reached out and picked up the book, titled “the Room with No Doors.” Her fingers tingled where they touched it. It felt heavy with magic, with secrets, with the air of another world. 

Pan ran up to her nervously. “Be careful, Lyra!” She opened the book as gently as she could...

The room filled with a low susurration. Looking down at the book, Lyra saw the figure of a young child, far away, but moving at speed towards her. The murmuring grew until the corridor filled with the sound of roaring wind, which rushed out from between the covers and lifted the books of Bodley’s library off the shelves with a rattling of chains. And the body of the child twisted out of the book in Lyra’s hands, and fell in a heap onto the cold stone floor. 

She was dressed in a variety of clothes thrown over each other: dirty velvets, muddy lace, wool and tweed. Holding them together was a large corduroy coat, which had probably been green once. Her dark reddish hair came down to her shoulders, and had fallen in a tangle across her face. 

Lyra rolled her over as gently as she could. She looked about 10, and her skin was pale where it showed through the grime, and ice cold to Lyra’s touch. 

“I don’t think she’s breathing, Pan. She’s not moving, and there’s no sign of her dæmon”

Pan crept over, and looked down at the girl. “I don’t think... I don’t think she’s dead. I think it’s just that her dæmon’s inside, like...”

Like Will. His name hung unspoken between them. Pan was Lyra’s own dear soul, and there were no secrets between them, but the love they bore each other meant that not all pains needed voicing.

The girl on the floor suddenly coughed and groaned. “Help me...”

Lyra bent down to her. “It’s OK. We’ve found you. We can help.”

“Who are you? Whose barony is this?” asked the girl “Which fiefdom?”

“You’re in Oxford” said Lyra. “Who are you?”

“My name’s Ingress.” The brief conversation had exhausted the girl, who sank back to the floor and slipped back into unconsciousness. 

Lyra gently lifted her up. She was surprisingly light. “Well, Pan, of all the things you’ve done to distract me from studying, this has to count as one of the more creative ones. Let’s take her back to college”

They left the library behind them, with only the silent books witnesses to all that had taken place.

***

The circus had taken over a week to travel the 60 miles to Oxford, travelling in style with shows every night. Now it was camped in wild splendour on Port Meadow, the elephants mingling with the cows, and oblivious students of Oxford Above cycling furiously only inches away from the lions and tigers. Door and her companions had said their farewells and walked the last few miles into Oxford together.

They were staring up at the entrance to All Souls College. It was an imposing facade in honey stone, liberally bedecked with statues of saints and garnished with crenulations on top. The high wooden door was firmly closed. The Marquis sauntered up to it and knocked languidly.

“The Lady Door, daughter of Lord Portico, and heir of the House of the Arch, along with her companions, Richard Richard Mayhew Dick, the Warrior of London Below, and the inimical Marquis de Carabas seek admittance to this college, to speak with the Warden of All Souls”

Richard hissed at de Carabas “Do you mean inimitable? I always used to get those confused.” 

The Marquis thought briefly. “No.”

Richard jumped back as with a soft grinding noise, the nearest statue leaned out of its niche and looked down on them. “If you are who you say you are, then open our door and be welcome, Lady of the House of the Arch. The Warden is at home and will receive you now”

Door reached out to the main gate, and with a soft ‘snick’ it swung open. They walked inside.

***

Ingress next came round in the Sanatorium of St Sophia’s college, half choking through Lyra’s well meaning but clumsy efforts to spoon soup into her mouth.

“How long was I asleep for?”

Pan leapt curiously up onto the foot of the bed. Ingress reached out towards him, but he skipped away and sat on the bed knob.

“Two days. The doctor thought it was mostly just exhaustion though. What had you been doing?”

Ingress shuddered as the memory of the cold, dark space washed over her. “I tried to escape. I tried and tried, but there was nothing I could open. No loose ends anywhere. And I called, and no-one came, and...” Her opal eyes brimmed with tears, and she blinked angrily, defiantly trying to hold herself together.

“How did you end up in there?”

Ingress hugged her arms tightly around her chest. “I was at home, with my family. Well, Door wasn’t there. She’d gone off exploring, and she wouldn’t take me with her. Said I was too little and I’d just slow her down. And then there were these men, and they got Arch, and they just... and then Mummy grabbed me and we ran into the ballroom, and I could hear Arch screaming, and then there was just this gurgling noise, and I thought it was the most terrible noise in the world, but then it stopped, and that was worse.” She sniffed, and Lyra handed her a handkerchief, and awkwardly draped an arm round her shoulders. “And then they came into the ballroom, and Mummy ran towards them, and they just pushed her aside like she wasn’t even there. And then...” Ingress wiped at her eyes fiercely. “I remember it hurting, and I must have passed out, and then I was trapped. Trapped for days, just floating in nothingness, and I tried to get out, I tried everything, but nothing worked. I did try, honest.”

Lyra looked down at the girl she was holding, watching the swirl of her emotions fight from anger to sadness and back to rage again. She remembered when she was that age, and knew this was not a child to dandle and cosset and pity, but someone who had a will of her own and would need help. “I’m sure you did. And you’re out now. So what do we do next?”

“I just need to get back home. Mummy and Daddy are probably looking for me, and... well, whatever happened, Door wasn’t there, and I need to find her and make sure she’s OK. Oxford’s not far from London, I can travel through the Tube, or with the Circus, or I could probably do an Opening, if I had my strength back...” Ingress’s tears were forgotten as she rattled off her options. 

Lyra looked down at her. “Ingress... I don’t think it’s going to be that easy. I think whoever captured you really didn’t want you to be found. I think you’re in the wrong Oxford.”

Ingress looked up, warily “You mean, I’m in Oxford Above? But you can see me, and the ferret was talking and...”

“I mean... Look, you’re not going to believe this. But the world you grew up on isn’t the only one. And I don’t mean other planets and other stars. No matter how far you travel you’re still in your universe. I mean... lying next to your world, just a shadow’s breath away, is another one, very similar to yours, but different. And another, and another. And normally, all these worlds sit there, a whisper apart, and never know a thing about the others. But there are some people who can move between them... angels can, and there was... there was a knife once, that could cut between the worlds. And I think you’re not from this world. And there...” Lyra braced herself, for now she came to the crunch she couldn’t bear to say it. Maybe she should wait until Ingress was well again, give her a break from the harshness of the world just for a little while. 

Pan looked at Lyra, and knew that what needed to be said should be said. He crept up to Ingress, so close that his whiskers were almost touching her hand. “There isn’t any way back.” 

Lyra looked down nervously at Ingress, wondering whether this explanation would be met with incredulity or hysterical misery. Instead, Ingress frowned slightly with concentration, and then a broad grin broke out. “Oh! Yes, Dad told us about that. There are places where the gap between the worlds is weaker, and if you know what you’re feeling for you can Open it. But you have to be careful, because when you Open it, then a soul-sucker comes out, and if you’re not careful it’ll kill you. Mum was so annoyed he’d told us. Arch was sweet on one of the Temple virgins, and decided that he’d impress her with flowers from another world, and of course, Arch being Arch, he didn’t make any plan for dealing with the soul-sucker, and it nearly killed him, and it was only because Dad came home early that it didn’t. Of course, then Dad nearly killed him, for being such an idiot. Arch always does such stupid...” Ingress suddenly broke off. “Anyway, we all had to promise after that, no travelling between worlds, there was quite enough to see in our own, and it was too dangerous. But if we can find the weak spot, then I can open it again to get home. And it has to be around here, else how did they bring me here in the first place?” 

Lyra and Pan gaped at Ingress in astonishment. Lyra spoke first. “You can open doors between the worlds?”

Ingress looked down at the sheets with an embarrassed grin. “Well, I know the theory. I’m sure it can’t be that hard”

Pan’s fur stood on end, and his claws dug tight into the duvet. “You’ll need someone to help you find the door. We can help.”

Lyra looked at him. “You think we could ask the alethiometer?”

Pan gazed deep into Lyra’s eyes. “You’ve been getting better every week. You’ve just been too scared of asking it anything difficult, because not trying is more comfortable than trying and failing. And we both know that’s not like you. Some things are important, and worth working for.”

Lyra looked straight back at him “Because we want to help Ingress?” She raised an eyebrow

Pan looked away first. 

***

Richard was surprised to find that the Warden of All Souls was a duck. A large duck, standing over six feet high, wearing full academic dress and a delicately balanced pair of _pince nez_ spectacles, but definitely a duck. There were times when he felt that he had become a part of Door’s world, and times when he felt just as naive and in the dark as the very first time he’d met de Carabas. Standing in a wood panelled study with a giant mallard wearing a gown was definitely in the latter category. He wondered why Door hadn’t mentioned the anatine nature of their host, and decided she probably hadn’t even thought it was odd.

“Well? What do you want?” The Warden’s voice was clipped and nasal, with just a hint of a quack.

“My parents were killed, and my sister kidnapped. You are the Warden of All Souls, and know the comings and goings of all in this land. We would have your aid to find my sister”

“You would have me tell you the secrets I am set to guard? And why, pray, would you expect me to do that?”

“The House of the Arch would be in your debt. Your help would be greatly appreciated, and we would owe you a large favour”

The Warden ruffled his feathers and quacked scornfully. “I do not trade on future promises, or release information out of the kindness of my heart. If you have anything of value that would interest me, tell me now. I am, after all, the swopping mallard.”

The Marquis reached in his pocket and pulled out a silver box. Inside, on a nest of red velvet, lay shards of broken eggshell, blue-green in the candlelight.

“A soul egg?” The Warden peered down at it over his spectacles. “Now that is of interest to me. Why didn’t you mention it earlier? It is, after all, always good to have returned what is rightfully mine but has been stolen from me... And you have kept it in such charmingly good condition, I see”

Richard blushed vicariously, but the Marquis did not even look embarrassed. “Let us know where Ingress is, and it’s all yours again”

The Warden picked up a leather bound book from the shelves that lined the study, and flipped skilfully through the pages. “Let us see... Arch, House of the. Portico, Lord. Deceased. Portia, Lady. Deceased. Arch. Deceased. Door. All Souls College, Oxford. And... Ingress. Oh. Well, that does complicate things”

Door stepped forwards. “What? What does it say? Where is she?”

“I’m afraid I have to tell you that she’s no longer in this world” said the mallard.

Richard moved closer to Door “You mean, she’s dead?”

“No, dead is really quite simple” said the Warden. “I mean, she’s in a different universe.”

“Tell me where she was last in this world” said Door. “Wherever it was, there must be a way through near there. If there’s a door, I can open it”

“Now, that’s fighting talk” said the Warden. The anatine academic took the silver box from de Carabas and hid it in the depths of his gown. “It’s not as bad as it could be. The Lady Ingress was last seen in this world in the Bodlian Library in Oxford. In Duke Humfrey’s reading room. Why, if you hurry you can be there before sundown.”

***

Lyra poured over the alethiometer. She could feel herself being on the edge of the answer, but the nearer she came to it the more it would slide away from her, like a song heard in a dream fading in the morning light. She covered pages in notes, possible meanings, connections and patterns. She changed the question, rephrasing it and approaching it from all sides. But the minutes turned into hours and the answer still eluded her.

Eventually Pan looked up from the notes. ‘You know, Lyra, we don’t have to do this alone. If you were stuck on anything else to do with the alethiometer, you’d ask Dame Hannah.”

Lyra looked non-committal. “Mmmmm”

“So why don’t we? What if she can help us?”

“And what if she tells us not to, Pan? Ingress says she can stop the Spectre. Ingress says she can close the door so hardly any dust will leak out. What if Dame Hannah listens to what we’re trying to do, and tells us that one ten year old girl’s optimistic beliefs aren’t worth risking the world over?”

Pan curled up tight round her neck. “We can just tell her we’re looking for something. She doesn’t need to know the details.”

“You know, you wouldn’t be so keen to hide it if you weren’t secretly scared it was a bad idea too”

“I’m not scared. I’m doing this for Ingress. She’s lost everyone, and we’re the only chance she has to get it back”

Lyra hugged Pan close to her chest. “Yes, I could see you were her biggest fan at the point she called you a ferret. Lie to the rest of the world, Pan, but don’t lie to me.”

“It is possible to have a selfish reason and a good reason, and for them _both_ to be true, you know” 

Lyra stroked Pan’s red-gold fur gently. “Of course I know. Let’s go and ask Dame Hannah for help.”

***

Will sat in Duke Humphrey’s reading room, clutching the shard of the subtle knife. He’d discussed possible plans with Mary for hours, but at the end it had been depressingly simple. They knew of nothing that could kill Spectres other than the subtle knife. They didn’t know if Will’s shattered fragment of the blade would do anything against them, but it had saved Will the first time, and they didn’t have any better ideas. Other than leaving the Spectre roaming the Bodleian, but Will had been adamant that that wasn’t an option. So Kirjava was waiting with Mary, keeping Will safer by being out of the Spectre’s reach, and Will was sitting and watching for a trace of shimmering gauze in the air. 

He was not expecting to see one of the bookcases swing suddenly to one side, and three strangers walk through it. A young woman, dressed in rags and scraps and huddled in a leather jacket. A dark skinned man in a huge dandyish black coat, who moved with the grace of a large cat. And a boyish man with dark rumpled hair, and a knife stuck through his belt. 

“This is the place” said the girl. “I can feel the weak spot. The door was opened here.” She drew her coat around her. “Look, I just want to say, you don’t have to come with me. We’ve got no idea what sort of a world Islington took her to when he hid her. There could be anything through this door. You’ve done more than enough”

The boyish man hugged her. “We’ve come with you this far, Door. We’ll see this one through”

Will stepped out towards them. “I’m afraid we haven’t met, but if you’re planning on opening a door to another world, we might want to have a chat about that first”. The shard of the subtle knife glinted in his hand. 

Richard drew Hunter’s knife from his belt, and stepped towards Will. The Marquis smiled without a trace of humour. “Our plans are none of your business, boy. And if you’ve got any sense you’ll leave, now.”

“And leave you to set another Spectre free in the library? And watch as it destroys someone else’s life? No, I think I’ll stay and fight, in that case.” The shard of the knife glittered in his hand.

Door walked towards him tentatively, with her palms out. “I am the Lady Door, of the House of the Arch, and I swear on the memory of my father Lord Portico and the Code of the Arch that I have every intention of cleaning up my own messes. I have never created a soul-sucker without destroying it, and I did not intend to start today.”

The Marquis raised an eyebrow at her. “Soul-sucker?”

Door shrugged. “They get generated when you open doors between worlds. My father taught me how to deal with them. It’s not easy, but it’s what we do”

De Carabas frowned. “And you were planning on mentioning that bit _when_ exactly?”

Will lowered the knife. “My name is Will Parry. Let’s talk.”

It was at that point that Richard screamed.

***

Lyra and Ingress ran down towards the library, Lyra breathlessly explaining as she went. “I worked out it was something to do with books. And I managed to get that the sun was standing for kingship, or an earldom, or similar. And I’d seen Europe in the horse, and friendship. But it was Dame Hannah who put it all together and deduced it was Duke Humfrey’s library. Humfrey comes from ‘friend of the hun’, you see, but I didn’t know that.”

Ingress said “I should have guessed it was in the library. That was where you found me, after all, and the walls between the worlds are always thinner when there are books around. Now, I just have to find the place where the wall feels weakest...” 

***

Will turned, and saw the Spectre bent over Richard’s body. Richard was rolling on the floor now, his hands beating feebly at the air. Will leapt towards him, slashing out with his fragment of knife, oblivious to the fact it was slicing deeply into his remaining fingers...

And then Door reached out. Her fingers brushed the edge of the Spectre, and there was a soft chiming sound and it was gone. Door dropped to the floor clutching her head, pale and on the edge of consciousness. 

The door burst open and Mary and Kirjava ran into the room. They looked around at the two bodies on the floor and the blood pouring down Will’s hand. Kirjava ran over to Will and sat in his lap, gently licking at his wounds. 

Mary spoke first. “What happened?”

“They killed the Spectre” Will replied. “It’s safe now. She said she could, and she did.” 

Richard groaned and sat up, and cradled Door towards him. Her eyes flickered and opened.

The Marquis bent down to her. “So that was the soul-sucker that you didn’t find any time to mention earlier. I thought he was only supposed to turn up when you actually opened the door.”

Door grimaced. “I think we can add ‘fails to clean up after himself’ to the long list of Islington’s more charming qualities. That one must have been here since he first opened the window.” She wrapped her coat around herself and leaned against Richard. “And now if the world could just stop spinning for a moment we can make one all of our very own and go and find my sister. Just, give me five minutes first.” 

And so they were still sitting like that – Door against Richard, Kirjava on Will’s lap, Mary and de Carabas off to one side – when with a sweet chiming sound the wall of the library vanished, and was replaced with a view of another world.

***

The first thing Lyra noticed when Ingress opened the door between worlds was an icy draft, like a shadow of a Spectre walking over her grave. The second was Ingress dropping like a stone to the floor, her eyes rolling back in her head.

But the third thing was Will.

Will, with Kirjava curled tight on his lap and blood bright on his hand. Will, older now, but with the same broad cheekbones and wide black brows that she had last seen in the shade of the botanical gardens, so many years ago. Will, who had followed her to the land of the dead, and returned with her, and brought her the greatest joy she had ever known. Will, who she had lost forever. 

Pantalaimon leapt through the window and ran towards him. Kirjava bounded towards Pan, and then they pulled up short, suddenly, as though a leash had stopped their headlong flight. Their whiskers brushed, the lightest of touches, and Lyra felt her heart nearly stop at the confusion of love and joy and fear that rushed through her.

Ingress groaned, and Lyra looked down at her. She was as white as a sheet and drifting in and out of consciousness. A young woman Lyra didn’t know ran over to them, and scooped her up in her arms. Her hair was the same colour, and her fashion sense equally idiosyncratic.

“You must be Door” said Lyra. Her voice sounded strangely loud to her ears, as though it was impossible that she could be in the same place as Will and still manage such mundanities as speech. 

“She killed the soul-sucker on her own. She’s much too young to be doing that sort of thing” said Door, in a voice that was half fearful and half proud. “We have to get her to the Black Friars. There’s a community on St Giles.”

Mary said “That’s all very well, but you appear to have left a portal in our reading room. I’ve spent enough of my life trying to stop Dust pouring out of the universe to know that that’s not a great thing to leave sitting there open. And also, it will cause some very raised eyebrows when the librarian comes round.”

Door bristled. “My sister is unconscious, and I’ve exhausted myself destroying one soul-sucker. I give you my word I will deal with closing it tomorrow.”

Mary looked worried. “Will? Could you...?”

Will looked at Lyra, framed in the light of the portal. She was older than his memory of her, but her hair still had the same sweet honey-colour, and she held herself with the same tense grace. He looked down at Pantalaimon and Kirjava, so close that a whisper could not come between them, and yet still only touching by the lightest of hairs. And then he looked back at Mary, who had clearly not yet recognised the young woman and her dæmon. He knew what the right answer had to be, and knew how much it had cost him to make the choice before. And his emotions clawed at him until he wanted to howl out his agony, but he forced it down, and nodded, a tight strained nod as quickly as possible, before he could think about what it would mean. He reached out his hand, to start to feel for the edges of the portal...

...and bent double as a wave of pain rushed through his fingers, where the fragment of knife had sliced at them during his battle with the Spectre. 

Door looked at him. “He’s not closing anything with his hand in that shape. I promise you, there is enough kindness and cheer in this meeting to keep that window open for twenty four hours with no harm to anyone. And now I’m going to get my sister the medical attention she so desperately needs. I suggest you do the same for him.” She turned to Lyra. “I don’t know who you are, but you helped my sister Ingress return to me. And for that I owe you an almighty favour.” 

Lyra looked back at her and stepped over the threshold into Will’s Oxford. “My name is Lyra Silvertongue, and twenty four hours in this world is the greatest favour anyone could give me.”

Door lifted Ingress into her arms, and walked out of the room, followed by Richard and the Marquis.

Mary looked at Lyra amazedly. “Lyra? But how?”

Lyra threw her arms around Mary. “I owe you so much, and have missed you so truly. And I hope there will be time to tell you the whole story. But for now, Mary, please could I have some time with Will?”

Mary squeezed her back tightly. She looked at Will, still bleeding from his wound, staring at Lyra as though she were a ghost. She looked at the dæmons, lost in the sight of each other. A worried frown passed across her face. “Of course. But if you need me, Will knows where I live.” 

And then it was just the two of them.

***

Ingress stirred. She could feel cool linen pressed against her skin, and in the distance there was a deep melodious chanting. She opened her eyes slowly.

“Where am I?”

“Oxford. With the Black Friars. You’re going to be OK now.”

Ingress braced herself to ask the crucial question of _which_ Oxford, when the face gazing down at her swam into focus, and she found herself looking up at her sister.

“Door? Did I make it back?”

“I wish I could take the credit for tearing a door between the worlds to get you home to me, little sis, but I have to admit you did it all by yourself. That’ll teach me not to rest on the job.” Door smiled down at Ingress. She was going to be insufferably smug about this, but for once she probably deserved it.

“Where’s Lyra? The girl who was with me...”

“She’s fine. We’ll see her tomorrow. She seemed to be exactly where she wanted to be. There was a boy...”

Ingress sighed inwardly. Grown-ups could be quite decent, sometimes, but they did have their boring weaknesses.

The door creaked open, and a boyish man with dark hair walked in.

“Oh, Ingress? This is Richard. He helped me find you. Helped me quite a lot, actually.” Door blushed.

Ingress grinned and rolled her eyes. It seemed like her sister had been doing her own growing up while she was away... 

***

Lyra had spent so much of her waking life talking to the Will-in-her-head that before today it would not have occurred to her that she would be lost for words when confronted with the real Will. She walked over to where he was sitting, and sat beside him. The gap between them felt wider now than it had when they were worlds apart. He looked at her, and she looked at him, and the air hung heavy with words unsaid. 

Pan stirred, and very gently walked over to where Will was sitting. Very slowly he licked at Will’s wounded hand, and rested his head on Will’s knee and gazed up at him.

Lyra felt a weight lift from her heart. It was like walking into a warm house after being out in the cold, a sensation of coming home and the world being right once more. She reached out her hand, and Will’s fingers found hers and squeezed.

“Do you remember, in Ci’gazze?” they both said at the same time, and then they laughed.

Lyra looked into Will’s eyes. “I don’t think this changes anything. Opening that portal nearly killed her. We can’t expect them to do it again. I can’t stay, and it must be closed, and...”

Lyra was crying now, silent tears rolling down her face. Kirjava crept into her lap, nuzzling the tears away from her cheeks with her lustrous fur. Lyra let out a gentle gasp at the rightness of feeling her there.

“Oh, Will. If the choices we’ve made are the right ones, why do they hurt so much?”

He drew her towards him, and stroked her hair. And he tried to comfort her, though he was crying too, and the wolf of emotion in his chest wanted to tear him to pieces. “Good, long, busy lives. Building the Republic of Heaven. If you hadn’t gone back, who would have found Ingress and saved her? No-one can build it, if they put themselves first.”

“I always go back to the bench, Will. Midsummer’s day, every year. I’ve never forgotten you.”

He kissed her then, marvelling at how soft she was in his arms, and a pleasure and joy rushed through both of them infinitely stronger than their grief. 

“It might not change anything in the long term” Will said. “But we know we have twenty four hours. Let's do what we can with them.”

They lay together in the library, their dæmons so close they could be one creature. And the light of another world shone around them, illuminating the golden dust that danced amongst the books.


End file.
